Monday, 10 December 2012

Rights abuses mounting: Licadho

A police officer throws a chunk of concrete at protesting residents
during a violent forced eviction in January 2012. Photograph: Meng
Kimlong/Phnom Penh Post

Elected and appointed officials have
been complicit in a catalogue of human rights abuses representing
steadily mounting attacks against Cambodian citizens over the past two
years, rights group Licadho said yesterday.

According
to Attacks and Threats Against Human Rights Defenders in Cambodia,
which covers 2010 to 2012 and was released to coincide with national
celebrations of Interational Human Rights Day, the situation for human
rights defenders has “soured dramatically”.

“Violence against
activists is on the rise, key [human rights defenders] have been killed
with impunity, and the courts have lost even the faintest semblance of
impartiality,” the report reads. “The year 2012 has been particularly
bad.”

The report profiled 125 cases of threats or attacks – some
fatal – perpetrated against human rights defenders between January 2010
and October 2012.

Among
the emerging trends cited in the report is that: “Armed military and
police forces have also been directly complicit in violating the rights
of human rights defenders, either in their own capacity or on behalf of
private actors.”

“Perpetrators also continued to escape
justice,” the report adds. “Cambodia’s notorious culture of impunity
persists, and is particularly problematic when a case involves human
rights defenders.”

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan
said the government welcomed credible criticism to help promote the role
of NGOs, media and the government in Cambodia.

“But these
allegations [are] from people in their office. In the field we [the
government] are very active in solving problems,” Siphan said.

“A
report must be scientific, with quality-control and evaluated and if
they say human rights issues get worse – show us specifically when and
from which year and the increases and what kind of rights.”

“We would appreciate it if people came up with proof [of government complicity],” he continued.

When
given an example of former Bavet Governor Chhouk Bandith, who has yet
to be prosecuted and sentenced by a court for allegedly firing live
rounds into a garment factory protest, shooting one woman through the
chest and injuring three others in February, Siphan said that individual
cases required individual complaints.

Siphan advocated using the
mechanisms already put in place by the government and said: “If you
don’t like something, lodge a complaint against that court or that
judge.”

“That’s the process we have to do to strengthen the system.”

Far from strengthening, the “system” is deteriorating into chaos, according to Licadho.

The
group highlighted the “blatantly political” verdict and 20-year prison
sentence against independent radio station owner Mam Sonando, the
seemingly “secret” charges against Adhoc senior investigator Chan
Soveth, and the detention of 13 Boeung Kak community representatives as
evidence of a judicial system that is being wielded as a weapon by the
government.

The murders of 14-year-old Heng Chantha,
environmental activist Chut Wutty, Battambang land rights activist Pich
Sophon and journalist Hang Serei Oudom, who worked on illegal logging
issues in Ratanakkiri, and the subsequent absence of any thorough
investigations or criminal charges underscore “notorious impunity and
corruption”, the group argues.

“The government has passed laws and signed treaties and is under an obligation to implement them,” Pilorge said yesterday.

“The
Cambodian constitution is one of the most progressive and everyone
wants checks and balances,” she said. “It is important for investors,
for young people, for home owners – it is no one’s interest that this
continue.”

Kirth Chantharith, spokesman for the National Police,
said that the report – which argues that police use violence to threaten
the human right activists – is baseless.

“What has been raised has no evidence,” he insisted.

Kheng Tito, spokesman of the National Military Police, couldn’t be reached for comment yesterday.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

That is one of examples of very bad policemen throwing the rock or stone into the protesters. One of the bad policemen is very unprofessional, untrained and uneducated under CPP controlled or influenced by the communist Vietnam. CPP is a secret provision and supervision of Communist Hanoi leaders of Communist Vietnam.

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